Indian insurance firms to spend Rs 140 billion on IT in 2016: Gartner

Most Indian insurance companies expect to increase their IT budgets in 2016, and are expected to spend Rs 140.8 billion on IT products and services, a 9.6 percent increase over 2015, according to Gartner.[caption id="attachment_2024681" align="alignleft" width="380"] Thinkstock[/caption]“Our research shows that Indian insurers are prioritizing their technology investments for 2016 into digitalization, and particularly analytics capabilities,” said Derry Finkeldey, research director at Gartner. “They are primarily looking to digital to grow their businesses in the domestic market.”This is driving continued strong growth in IT services, especially consulting services, and also enterprise software. Spending on IT services is forecast to reach Rs 45.2 billion, which is 32 percent of all insurance IT spending.Enterprise software spending, which includes enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), and customer relationship management (CRM), is forecast to grow 22 percent in 2016, to a total of Rs 948 million.